Terence Michos, Cablevision News:

Well, the Fishkill Watershed Committee
is moving forward with its plan to help protect the
Fishkill Creek.






    At their most recent meeting, the group went over 
    some of their findings and their ultimate goal - to 
    work with municipalities to help preserve the creek.


            













Since early this spring volunteers have walked the Fishkill Creek, which runs from Unionvale through Beekman, East Fishkill, Fishkill and Beacon, and opens into the Hudson River.


During those walks, some major issues have been identified that could severely compromise the life of the watershed.


Committee members say the first step is to carefully identify those problems.
 



Rick Oestrike, Watershed  Committee [Chairman]:

It's a visual assessment. In other words, it's using your eyes to assess the condition of the Fishkill Creek. It's
not a cleanup. But what we did is we identified the
areas that are in good shape, the areas that are in bad shape, and what is the problem.
Michos: [The problems] range from severe erosion, excessive litter, diminished vegetation and impoundments such as dams, that prevent water flow and fish migration.

The ultimate goal of the findings is to fix the problems.

Oestrike: That's the next step. This step - the stream walk - is just finding out what's there - finding out what's good and what's bad, and where it is.

Once we have all that data, then we can try to figure out how to deal with  each of those problems.

Michos: Well, the Fishkill Creek Watershed Committee is supported by the Dutchess County [Environmental] Management Council and the Hudson [River] Estuary Program.                                
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